They were so very beautiful, and she had not seen them before; she could not thank him for them even--all conversation except before people was now at an end.

Then, for her further unhappiness, she remembered he had said: "When the mockery of the rejoicings is over then we can discuss our future plans." What did that mean?
That he wished to separate from her, she supposed.

How could circumstance be so cruel to her! What had she done?
Then she sat down for a moment while she waited, and clenched her hands.

And all the passionate resentment her deep nature was capable of surged up against fate, so that she looked more like the black panther than ever, and her mood had only dwindled into a sullen smoldering rage--while she still sat in the peculiar, concentrated attitude of an animal waiting to spring--when Tristram opened the door, and came in.
The sight of her thus, looking so unEnglish, so barbaric, suddenly filled him with the wild excitement of the lion hunt again.

Could anything be more diabolically attractive?
he thought, and for a second, the idea flashed across him that he would seize her to-night and treat her as if she were the panther she looked, conquer her by force, beat her if necessary, and then kiss her to death! Which plan, if he had carried it out, in this case, would have been very sensible, but the training of hundreds of years of chivalry toward women and things weaker than himself was still in his blood.